It was eleven years ago.
Three foals were taking flight alongside one another. One pegasus was notably slower than the other two, but at one's very first glance, it wasn’t nearly as certain. The only male pegasus among the three, sporting a pair of goggles and a goofy bomber hat while he was in flight, had matched his flight speed in consideration for the slower pegasus girl. As such, none of them was being unintentionally ostracized for being slow, even with the final member of the group constantly looping around them in circles, likely out of sheer boredom.
“Dash. You’re making us…” Joseph took a moment to take a deep yawn, closing his eyes as he felt tears well up when he opened his mouth. “…Dizzy.”
Twirling around, making a show of herself stopping her constant looping, Rainbow Dash spun herself around to start flying right in front of Joseph’s flight path. “Hey, that fancy lightning powers of yours, why don’t you tell me how to use it already?”
“Because I’m fairly certain I barely know how to use it myself.” Joseph replied, slapping himself softly with his own hoof in an attempt to wake himself up.
“Then it’s, like, special to you, right? Aww, that kinda stinks... Well, you could become a hero, you know? Like in one of the comics you’re carrying around.” Rainbow Dash said, glancing towards Joseph’s saddlebags where the aforementioned comics were likely carried.
“And maybe you could write a book about all the nice things you’ve done?” Fluttershy slyly put in her input, flying closer to her friends as more pegasi gathered around them.
“Books? Seriously, Fluttershy? He would be too busy doing-“ Rainbow Dash was interrupted, as Joseph whacked her on the head, with one of the comics he had taken out.
Opening the comic, one titled ‘Baoh’, Joseph said while not bothering to look away from his comic, “We’re here, Dash.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Rainbow Dash begrudgingly stated as the three of them shuffled into Cloudsdale Sky Park.
From the name alone, Cloudsdale Sky Park could be imagined as an amusement park. However, it is actually the very first building that was ever built by the Cloudsdale city, with its residents pitching into its creation. Some ponies consider it to be the flagstone for the entire city. Cloudsdale Sky Park has often been considered as the center of the city, leaving it prime for political debates/announcements, parties, and even casual meetings between friends.
And it is here where one Rapid E. O. Speedwagon was going to make an adventurous claim. To build an antenna to pinpoint the moving city of Cloudsdale at all times, and propose a system to have other major cities to be on a regular routine for being responsible for providing Cloudsdale with enough water for the rainy seasons. Beforehand, it was a massive rush for any city Cloudsdale happened to be near to provide water from their reservoirs, and rainy seasons were often late. However, with new unicorn magic, and ground-based sensors using Earth pony ideas, it was truly a way for even a city of pegasi to be connected to all three pony races.
Currently, Speedwagon was meeting with an old friend backstage.
“Thank you for coming, Rainbow Blaze.” Speedwagon exchanged greeting and a hoof with a blue pegasus slightly larger than his own frame, with his mane being his prominent feature. It was rainbow-colored, after all.
“Please call me Blaze, you always do this…we’ve known each other long enough, Rapid.” Rainbow Blaze responded. “I’m not even a political official, there’s no need.”
“Please. There’s always a need for old friends.” Speedwagon let out a small smile and a light chuckle. “Plus you’re far too young for me to consider that appropriate.”
“Dad!”
Rainbow Blaze turned around, already prepared to grasp the flying Rainbow Dash straight above him, letting her do a small loop before letting her down right in front of him. Patting her head, Rainbow Blaze said, “Hey, squirt. Nice to see you made it.”
“Even if we had to drag her kicking and screaming.” Joseph added, placing a hoof between the comic’s pages to remember where he was. Not that he really needed it. “Speedwagon, how exactly are you even standing on clouds anyway?”
“I took the liberty of asking one of my foundation's unicorns to enchant me with a cloud-walking spell. I believe he's walking around the city now, but he may be back later, hopefully he won't be knocked out, rendering the enchantment useless. Heh.” Speedwagon sighed, looking worriedly at his hooves on the south , before taking a mental head count. “I thought you were going to bring three of your friends, Jojo?”
“Oh…Gilda couldn’t make it.” Fluttershy stated. Inwardly, she was glad for it as Gilda had become much more rambunctious and adventurous ever since meeting Dash.
“Yeah. She said something about not liking fancy pony food.” Joseph resumed his reading, eager to see the adventures of Baoh. Gilda was a topic of interest for Joseph, just predicting how she would end up in the future considering her rapid 180 in her personality. But, this was not a time Joseph wondered, nor remembered to.
“Well. Either way, there’s plenty of food to go around.” Speedwagon tilted his head towards the refreshments. While Joseph seemed uninterested, Rainbow Dash was starving and after making a pleading look, her dad allowed her to get some sustenance.
Taking a seat, flipping another page of his comic, Joseph sighed. “I guess I should probably go with her…she could honestly get herself in trouble in an atmosphere like this.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Rainbow Blaze said, garnering Joseph’s attention. “Fluttershy already excused herself to do just that.”
“She did? Alright then.” Joseph questioned, Rainbow Blaze noticing Joseph’s voice wasn’t exactly as monotonous as it has been.
Remembering something, Rainbow Blaze started shuffling through his own saddlebags.
“Anyway, I’d like to thank you for putting up with my daughter for so long.” Rainbow Blaze said. Before Joseph could wave it off and make a witty remark, Rainbow Blaze already hoofed over a comic, along with an accompanying volume.
“What? But this is?!” Joseph stammered. Making sure to read the entirety of the cover, Joseph confirmed it was an edition of ‘Detective Trap’ that he hadn’t yet read, and the volume featured a collection of the most recent ones that he had read.
“I heard from Dashie that you read this one a lot. My friend’s an editor for the Jump Comics publisher so they managed to sneak me a few advance copies. Thought you might like it.”
“I-I can’t really thank you enough…I can help you repay the favor-“
“It’s a gift. You don’t have to.” Rainbow Blaze interrupted Joseph before he could try and make it more of a trade.
“Blaze!” A voice hollered from the corner of Joseph’s vision. He was almost tempted to yell back and say ‘Shut it!’ but was unable to do so as Blaze himself had already made is way over before Joseph could even begin turning his head.
Judging by Blaze’s expression, Joseph gave in. Joseph never really did that… but sighed before looking back upon his newly obtained comic. At least, before he stuffed it back into his saddlebag along with the larger volume.
A good book was something meant to be read in relaxation with a light peering over your shoulder. Certainly not at some stuffy party where Joseph was on his lonesome backstage in his own little corner of the universe.
Joseph liked it better that way. Most of the time, interactions with others just wasn’t really worth it. Either they spoke in a demeaning tone just because he was a child or just because it was odd for a stallion of his age to be so particularly tall, even if he could predict a majority of what they would do… or they would speak in a very friendly and sweet manner. The latter sickened him far more, boredom included.
Joseph always thought to himself, ‘Why bother? I already know how the conversation would go anyway.’ He even only hung around Dash just because she was impulsive and seriously enjoyed dragging him around. Especially when he could get her out of so many messes.
He would die before he admitted it was actually kinda fun.
Staring back into the pages of ‘Baoh’, an issue he had read before when the issue came out yesterday, but the message really stuck to him. One of the side characters had died in the latest issue because of acting reckless towards a villain that constantly acted like a joking idiot. And then that idiot managed to lay out one of the most complicated traps that Joseph had even heard of. Joseph couldn’t help but wonder if a detective author helped him write something so convoluted.
Well, Joseph was backstage already. Nice and quiet. Not much reason to not just finish the second reading here. So he might as well.
“B-but that’s impossible…how could you have predicted that I would even charge you into this room?!” Bastion cried. The panel depicted him half-dead with the light in his eyes already fading to a blacker color, but he still had enough energy to scream out in pain, splattering blood.
“Predict? I really don’t think you’re paying attention here. I knew. Why do you think I bothered to make sure to dance us around into a public area? Not because I wanted to really kill any of ‘em. Nah, boss’ll take care of that. But because heroes…wait, I’m sorry, idiots like you put the safety of other people first.”
The large speech was fragmented among several panels, with him slowly dragging Bastion towards the edge of the room they were in. It was only the second story, but even a drop from this height would kill someone so badly injured.
“Hell, I mean-“ Archie shut himself up. For once. “Huh…guess you’re dead already.” The panel depicted the trail of blood Archie left from dragging around Bastion. The ponies in question weren’t even in the picture.
The body was dropped back into frame, as the focus shifted towards Archie, shielding himself from the sun using his hoof.
“Well then. I think I’ll go bother Immini again. She hates the whole bugs that are on fire prank. Or maybe just bugs on fire. Whatever. Let’s go get some sticks.” Archie said flying in the opposite direction of the sun.
A small ‘To Be Continued’ was featured on the bottom of the page. Probably gonna be a page dedicated to Bastion’s death. He was the most popular character in the polls after all.
Joseph couldn’t help but like that cheeky old fart of an author for immediately killing off the most popular character. It’s like he just wanted for the issue to get attention, and purposely give Archie some more sense in the story other than being solely comic relief.
One thing Joseph didn’t really get was how if Archie was, in all likelihood smarter than his own boss, why bother hiding it by acting stupid? The author was known for writing realistic characters, but Joseph just dismissed that fact as Archie’s just some character in one of his books.
Joseph rubbed his eyes again. He probably was gonna need to apologize for reading a comic through whatever Speedwagon was talking about. Again. Reading an issue like that again, even if he read some of it before coming here, probably would’ve taken around half the time of the event.
Wait a minute. Speedwagon was supposed to be talking right now. By Joseph’s mental calculations, the speech should’ve started mere minutes ago.
Perhaps Joseph couldn’t hear him properly behind the stage. Perhaps it simply started late. Or perhaps when Joseph walked around to the front of the stage, he would get yelled at by an extremely rough-look pegasus with malicious words that were initially meant for Speedwagon.
Joseph certainly didn’t predict the latter. But that’s what he got.
Some large olive-green pegasus, equipped with wing blades that were clearly polished with care, turned his head as Joseph entered his frame of view, but failed to stop his previous outcry against Speedwagon. The only other ponies that were standing were two other pegasi, one looking frantic and a bit skinny with the other one holding an aura similar to that of a well-trained bodyguard. There was also a female unicorn, who was currently tying up ponies, which Joseph assumed to be the ponies that had come to hear all about Speedwagon’s announcement.
“You! Get back there!” The olive green one said. Joseph already figured he was the one in charge with how the other two were positioned around him, probably a pegasus that grew up in a military family if he himself wasn’t trained as well.
Joseph glanced at Speedwagon, who looked back at Joseph with fear and worry. Like the old man even needed to. “Hey. I’m not exactly sure of your business. But it seems to me that your business is with Speedwagon. You clearly aren’t going to kill the poor old stallion, or you would’ve already done so. Honestly, there’s no reason to mind me. No real reason to bother myself to try and stand up to you lot and possibly get myself killed. I’ll just sit and read if you don’t mind.”
While the military one clearly seemed to be contemplating his words, something Joseph certainly didn’t expect from a larger and angry pegasus, the unicorn was the first to speak. And Joseph noticed that the military one certainly didn’t enjoy her intervention.
“Kid. We’re the Loyalists. Ponies who just want the pony races to stay separate. Especially pegasi! We’re gonna bring back the ideas of old, like Commander Thunderhooves once had! We can’t just let some kid like you wander about! Maybe you could report us to the authorities!”
While Joseph certainly wondered why a unicorn would be in such a group, he also could care less. Especially considering her reasoning was completely unsound. Seating himself in a nearby table, Joseph re-opened ‘Baoh’ to try and assess the situation quickly and determine if anything was even necessary.
Joseph sighed and waved his hoof in their general direction. “Well, I’m certain that your goal will come true. I’m just going to enjoy my comic if you don’t mind. It’s written by a pegasus, after all.” Joseph simply added that last statement to try and spite one of his would-be captors.
Clicking her tongue, the unicorn assailant simply began to individually retie the attending ponies. Well, at least everypony but one, that Joseph could see from his secluded corned with his vision obscured by his comic.
‘Well. It’s not really my problem. Speedwagon can handle it, for now, anyways.’ Joseph refocused his attention to staring intently back into the pages, refusing to let wandering eyes deem him a threat from the very clearly observant military pegasus. Although, said pegasus was currently staring daggers at the unicorn every chance he could get.
Honestly, Joseph was surprised. It was odd when he met criminals, especially ones that actually didn’t bother him or listen to what he was saying. ‘Maybe for a radially conservative folk, they weren’t that bad.’ Joseph mulled over his thoughts as he could hear that military pony barking away at Speedwagon, probably for a ransom or the superior race or whatnot. Nothing really indicated that Joseph would need to further intervene.
At least until Joseph realized that the one pony that the unicorn did not tie was actually going to be used as a direct threat to Speedwagon. And more importantly, that it was Fluttershy.
“Speedwagon~, I hope you do realize that I don’t have empty threats. You will dismantle your receptor in Cloudsdale, as well as the transmitters across Equestria. Or I guess I could just kill this poor foal, although I’m sure assaulting her would make a much bigger impact.” The military pony said, carefully toying with his wingblades around Fluttershy. “Pegasi would grow so much stronger without any outside interference.”
“Said the hypocrite.” Joseph added his sidebar, gathering the attention of what Joseph could only describe as terrorists. Before they would question him, which they undoubtedly would, Joseph explained himself, “You’re going all about the great restoration of the old ways that pegasi would be and how we could build ourselves anew and blah blah, and yet here you are, threatening the life of one of those pegasi you claim to care so much about, much less a young foal with a possibly bright future in the so-called world you want to rebuild.”
The military pony’s expression darkened as he turned towards Joseph. “Well, I suppose you’re right.”
Pushing Fluttershy away with enough force to throw her to the ground at least 5 meters away, the military pony began approaching Joseph. Clearly he wasn’t exactly going to listen to him anymore.
‘Huh. And here I thought he might actually be a bit smarter.’ Joseph said as the military pony approached him. And then he saw something that made him thought the pony was even more stupid than he realized. On his uniform, he seriously had a name tag on it. And it wasn’t like a ‘Hi, my name is Name of the Group Joseph Can’t Care to Remember.’ but his actual name. Hard Case.
However, even with Case almost right in front of Joseph, Joseph’s attention was focused elsewhere. Particularly, the single rainbow-maned blob of a pony he could barely see in the corner of his vision. Even if he only saw the mane, it was easy enough to spot as it was the only mane that was moving and the only mane that was rainbow-colored.
Wait...shouldn’t there be one more?
Before Joseph truly realized the meaning of that, the nervous pegasus cried out, “H-hey, what the heck are you d-doing?!”
With the Loyalists distracted, Joseph could see that the blob from earlier was Rainbow Blaze, and that he was probably trying to make his way over to Fluttershy. She had been whimpering in pain a bit, something probably got fractured when her delicate frame got roughly pushed aside.
Joseph wasn’t surprised. Rainbow Blaze did have that kind of hero personality, even if it were more of a healer right now.
Unfortunately, the assailing ponies apparently didn’t see Rainbow Blaze as simple acting as a medic, but rather an aggressor, since Blaze had been in the general vicinity of the unicorn that had initially tied him up. The bodyguard-type pegasus was immediately on top of Rainbow Blaze, with the wingblade above his neck.
But even with the incredible speed the bodyguard-type moved at...Joseph had to think far faster with his child brain than most adults within the next few life-changing seconds…
On one side, the unicorn had become upset as she thought Blaze tried to attack her, and decided to retaliate. And the bodyguard-type clearly wasn’t aware of the table currently being launched at him. While it wouldn’t normally be a problem if they took each other out, Joseph knew that the wingblade was being pressed into Blaze’s throat and if the bodyguard-type were to be violently thrown off, then the blade would easily leave a deep cut.
On the other side, Rainbow Dash. Stupid Rainbow Dash. She flew out from under a table, probably managed to get herself down there before all the action began and didn’t get herself caught. But as Joseph knew how quickly she thought, and more importantly, how quickly she would react when her father was pinned. But that nervous pony clearly wasn’t nearly as good at reacting.
The nervous pony was caught off-guard by Dash, and fell backwards, with his wings flailing about. Wingblades attached. Now, Rainbow Dash certainly would be able to get to her father otherwise, but judging by the flailing, Dash was on a direct collision course with a rusty wingblade that would definitely do a lot of damage.
Sometimes, Joseph really hated that Dash had to have inherited that hero personality.
But then again, Joseph had already made his choice.
Joseph, using Hamon to straighten out the pages of his closed ‘Baoh’ comic, making its consistency more like a rock than paper. He needed to break. Not cover.
Throwing it similar to the Frisbees he constantly plays with, Joseph used his comic to blunt the flying projectile. Or rather, pony. When the comic collided with Rainbow Dash’s side, likely to leave quite a nasty bruise unfortunately, her trajectory was thrown off as she crashed to the side. The flailing nervous pony didn’t manage to get his wings back under control for a while, but Dash was already out of harm’s way.
Which is much less than Joseph could say about Rainbow Blaze. As he predicted, Blaze was pressuring the massive gash left in the back of his neck after the bodyguard-type was thrown off.
As Joseph stood straight, Case sent a sideways glance at the young pegasus. As a Loyalist, Case would’ve been happy if a young pony like him were to take up his torch. Even if Case already knew it was unlikely.
Speedwagon, who had been observing Joseph, clutched at the rim of his hat. ‘W-was that Hamon?! Did young Joseph inherit it from his grandfather, Jonathan Joestar?!’
Rainbow Dash, at this point fueled by so many emotions that Joseph probably couldn’t keep track of it even if it was the Joseph from eleven years future. Rage. Despair. Worry. Hatred. Loyalty.
Dash, powered by pure adrenaline, shrugged off the pain from Joseph’s attack. She needed to get to her dad. Her guardian. Her hero. Her bastion. Rainbow Blaze was the one who had raised her ever since she was a little filly. He was an ex-professional flier, and now just a simple weather manager, willing to end his career to make sure he always had time for his little girl.
And now? Now, Rainbow Blaze was currently bleeding profusely. Rainbow Blaze was dying.